Fake Sapphire

[MicroRave]

Okay, there's a guy at our local market that sells games. Same guy that has the 'rare' Harvest Moon 64' cartridge. Anyways I've been by his stall a few times looking at the games on display so this time I decided to buy something.

I got Pokemon Sapphire and have been playing for a couple days without any problems, just I noticed this message coming on that says "The game can be played" or "The save file will be loaded" when it starts up, otherwise it's all Sapphire. Figured this had something to do with cleaning/testing etc. but it apparently means it's fake and there's a possibility of getting a deleted save file. Then I checked the packaging and noticed the booklet was thinner than the Ruby I already have and it's darker.

The guy says he has a return/exchange policy, like, if I return THAT game I can trade for another he has, he's been there FOREVER. But I wonder, should I just return? or wait until the save actually deletes itself like fakes are supposed to and try to get a refund? How long would that take? Also if I did exchange what are the chances that ALL his games are fake?

[Lexy]

You should get a refund for him giving you a fake game. Look at the images on the carts, and if it's fake it will often look different. Might as well lose your save when your starting off then to get so far and to have it *poof*.

[MicroRave]

You should get a refund for him giving you a fake game. Look at the images on the carts, and if it's fake it will often look different. Might as well lose your save when your starting off then to get so far and to have it *poof*.

Yeah after I got the game message a couple of times I eventually looked it up and found out that means it's a copy. I then compared to my pre-existing ruby packaging/booklet/cartridge and spotted the differences.

But I'm hoping if he DOES sell some real games as well, then taking advantage of the exchange policy will work without going "OMG YOU SOLD ME A FAKE!!", I could just say "I'd rather have something else." or "The save file died."

How fast do you think it'll poof? I'm already at the first gym :/

[EternalHero]

Sugar rave! It's ok this dush at the fleamarket tried to sell me a game that said pokemon adventure on it and really it was a blue version!

[Tolby]

lol, this reminds me of a game system my brother bought at a flea market in San Antonio. It looked like a N64, but wasn't marketed as. It said it was a system with 500 games. Anyways, they had it set up and would show you like 10 or so different games. Pacman, Mario, Joust, Paperboy stuff like that. When we got home it had 500 games on it. But it was just the same 10 games on there 50 times each with different names. And I don't mean like old school pong/hockey/soccer. But literally the same Pacman game on there 50 times with different names like "Doctor Pill"

It was only like 30 dollars, so it was still pretty much worth it to have those 10 classic games on there, almost. But still, just hilarious. This was like 10 years ago.

[MicroRave]

lol wow...

Do you still have the game Tolby?

[Tolby]

I doubt it. My brother might have kept it locked away without me knowing, but I'm pretty sure he threw it away or sold it at a garage sale a long time ago.

[MicroRave]

Come to think of it the GBA game I had like that was almost the same way, except they only repeated a couple of titles. There were two games I really liked in particular though, both Japanese. One was 1942, and the sequel(?) 1944. Basically it's flying an aircraft around on the screen while shooting at submarines and other aircraft. The boss is a huge floating aircraft carrier.

Anyways I returned Sapphire and was able to exchange it for Emerald, which I'm happy to say seems pretty real to me. I did some research and made a note of what signs to look for when playing spot the fake. And wouldn't you know it, related search turns up fake R4s too.

So Emerald was marked at like, 80 bucks. The guy asked for 10 dollars and he'd call it even. I had the money, so I just sorta shrugged and said ok. I popped it in my GBA and it stuck on the loading screen, DS wouldn't even recognize it. But I remembered one crucial thing, my N64 cartridges wouldn't read if they had too much dust in them. So I took a tissue, scrunched up one end, and gave the inside of the card a wipe. Sure enough, fires right up. No "The game can be played" anymore!

[Tithis]

lol, this reminds me of a game system my brother bought at a flea market in San Antonio. It looked like a N64, but wasn't marketed as. It said it was a system with 500 games. Anyways, they had it set up and would show you like 10 or so different games. Pacman, Mario, Joust, Paperboy stuff like that. When we got home it had 500 games on it. But it was just the same 10 games on there 50 times each with different names. And I don't mean like old school pong/hockey/soccer. But literally the same Pacman game on there 50 times with different names like "Doctor Pill"

It was only like 30 dollars, so it was still pretty much worth it to have those 10 classic games on there, almost. But still, just hilarious. This was like 10 years ago.

We had a very similar thing except ours looked like a PlayStation and had a cartridge slot under the hood. Most of the games were the same except with different sprites and names. I know now it also doubled as a famicom clone
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/PSOne_Style_Famicom_Clone.jpg/641px-PSOne_Style_Famicom_Clone.jpg
(not our copy but an identical picture)

[Lexy]

80$ for emerald? o_O You can get a brand new one for 50$ online off amazon. Man if it was me I'd chew that guy out SOOO badly.

[MicroRave]

80$ for emerald? o_O You can get a brand new one for 50$ online off amazon. Man if it was me I'd chew that guy out SOOO badly.

I was thinking about it if the Emerald was fake, but it seems to be quite legit. Apparently the biggest things to look for for authenticity are shiny labels and proper colored cases (mostly Pokemon games), indented numbers in the labels, and '(c)2002 Nintendo' should be silk screened into the board. You can actually look into the cart where the pins are and if you angle it you should see it.

Anyways I only ended up paying the 10 bucks and he kept the 40 bucks from the previous game to call it even. In total I only ended up paying 50 bucks. If memory serves I think I bought my Ruby from the same market, but not the same guy, and it was also legit (and happily no save trouble to date! I got that thing before even entering high school xD). I took a look at the other games in the case and they all had the proper indent in the label, so I suppose if any silk screening turned up they'd also be real, but I didn't see anything else I liked so I'm not likely buying there anymore.

Anyways there should be a guide or something for this, apparently they're already making fake DS cards too. A quickie reference would be a good idea.

[Lexy]

Hong Kong is infamous for selling fake games. xD Just look on e-bay, you'll see tons of cheap ds games from Hong Kong.

[IowaJack]

I have a fake version of Doom II for the GBA. A buddy gave it to me, complete in box, when I bought a few other games from him. He had told me it was a fake and he got it off of eBay, so he gave it to me for free. The cart is very very slightly bigger than a standard GBA game, and the game has a weird intro screen but it plays fine.

[God is a cat girl]

We had a very similar thing except ours looked like a PlayStation and had a cartridge slot under the hood. Most of the games were the same except with different sprites and names. I know now it also doubled as a famicom clone
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/PSOne_Style_Famicom_Clone.jpg/641px-PSOne_Style_Famicom_Clone.jpg
(not our copy but an identical picture)

I had one that was a keyboard with some stuff on it, and it ran Pirated NES games too. XD I actually almost that PSX looking one because it was really cheap, so buying it for fun wouldn't be that bad. XD
In my country we called those NES "clones" "Family Game" because that's what most of them were called.

Sometimes you would get a cartridge like Tolby said, 500 games but it was the same 10 games repeated 50 times, but ours had like, the original name with a number after it, and if you choose the later number, you would start in later levels or with all upgrades or weapons. XXD

One of the best parts of my summer between... 1997~2001 was playing that while eating pomegranates with coke and sugar, in a friends house. XD